Data analysis cuts queues at hospital's A&E

Six per cent drop in emergency patients at Royal London Hospital

IT helped reduce A&E demand at Royal London Hospital

Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust has reduced accident and emergency (A&E) attendance at a local hospital by six per cent through better analysis of patient data.

With A&E services costing between £55 and £100 per visit, the trust was able to make significant cost savings and more effectively serve patients.

Using Experian’s Mosaic Origins application to help pinpoint the ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds of A&E users, Tower Hamlets found that repeat users, who used A&E at the Royal London Hospital several times a year for minor symptoms, were most often 20-to-30-year-old Bangladeshis.

A campaign was set up with the local Bangladeshi community to promote GPs and pharmacists. As a result, Tower Hamlets was the only trust to record a decline in A&E attendance during this time, with local GPs recording a rise in appointments.

‘The NHS is often accused of being data rich but information poor. The data was already there and by using Experian’s Mosaic Origins we turned that data into useful information and broke down into age groups and ethnic origins who was using A&E and why, and created targeted campaigns,’ said Carl Edmonds, urgent care network manager at the trust.

‘It’s a question of making sure we have the right capacity to meet demand.’